Page 7 of Deck the Hauls

Emily looked at me blankly for a second and then slapped her hand over her mouth. “Oops! Sorry. It’s just all this—”, she waved her hand at the firs, “—is getting me in the mood.” She blushed. “For Christmas, I mean.”

Despite yet another Christmas reminder, I bit back a chuckle again.

I let out a deep breath as silence settled back in the forest, broken only occasionally by the high pitched call of a chickadee. We reached the end of the row, stepped onto a dirt path, and turned down the next row.

“These trees are huge!” Emily tipped her head back, taking in the firs.

“These ones are all over fourteen feet tall. We grow them for large houses and the local church, as well as the town’s Christmas display.”

I stopped halfway down the row and frowned. “The weeds have gotten a little out of control here.” I knelt, pulled out gloves and a large trash bag from my pocket, and began yanking them out. “If we don’t keep on top of them they can take over, sucking nutrients from the soil and attracting rodents.”

Emily bent down to help.

I shot out my hand as she reached out for a weed. “Not without gloves. There’s poison ivy and stinging nettles around here. The last thing you need is a terrible rash.” I looked around. “Why don’t you spend some time getting acquainted with our firs? If you look closely, you can see how the needles grow in a spiral pattern and are green and glossy on top, but silvery underneath. Have a look to see if you can find any cones. And once you do all that, try to estimate how many needles one of these fir trees has.”

That should keep her busy for a while.

Emily stood. “Okay. Thanks.”

“Just don’t go too far. Stay within ten trees of me. It’s easy to get lost in here if you’re not careful.”

I settled into a soothing rhythm of pulling out the weeds. It was almost as cathartic as chopping wood. The results were tangible and instantaneous.

As I was finishing up, an ear piercing shriek rang out. I jumped up, my heart pounding. What the hell was going on? I sprinted down the row of trees. Where was Emily?

“Dana!”

Emily’s voice sounded close, but there was no sign of her. Fuck. Roz would kill me if filming had to be cancelled because the lead actress was injured under my watch.

I spotted Emily’s handbag and my blue jacket on a bed of fir needles on the ground. But where the hell was Emily? I winced. I shouldn’t have sent her off by herself.

“Up here!”

My head shot up. What the…?

I caught a flash of red and a glimpse of her pale face. Emily was half-way up a fir tree. Shit. Had she damaged the tree?

I blew out a breath. “What are you doing?”

“There’s… There’s a scene in the film where my character gets stuck up a Christmas tree while trying to put the star on top and needs to be rescued by a firefighter. Since you were busy waiting, I thought I’d practice climbing. I don’t like heights so I wanted to check if I could do it…” Emily’s voice trailed off.

I strode toward her. “Well whoever wrote that scene clearly doesn’t know anything about Christmas trees. Their branches are definitely not strong enough to climb on, at least not at this stage of maturity.” It was a miracle she’d gotten as far as she had without the branches snapping under her or poking out an eye.

“Look, I’m sorry that the script isn’t realistic, but I’ve got more pressing things to worry about. I can’t get down.” Emily’s voice increased by a half an octave.

Shit.

I squeezed in between the branches. Ouch. Needles stabbed my exposed skin and a branch pressed uncomfortably against my left thigh.

Holy crap. How Emily had managed to near the trunk, let alone climb up this spiky dense tree was beyond me.

When I reached the base, I studied the branches. I had at least twenty pounds on Emily. “I don’t think I can climb up. The branches may have survived your weight but I don’t think they’ll support mine. But I can talk you through getting down, okay?”

“Okay,” Emily whimpered.

I peered up, squinting to see Emily’s feet and the surrounding branches. “There’s a branch directly below your left foot. It looks big enough to hold you. Lower yourself carefully onto it and keep your foot as close to the trunk as possible.”

Emily shakily stepped onto the branch without it breaking.